Category: Corona Virus

The coronavirus pandemic may feel distant for some, but new data shows summer is ushering in an annual wave of infections, and President Joe Biden is just the latest to test positive for COVID-19.

The COVID-19 positivity rate hit 15.6% in a group of states including Arizona, California, Nevada, and Hawaii, according to the latest report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Across the nation, positive COVID-19 tests increased to 11%, a jump of nearly 2 percentage points compared to the previous week, and emergency department visits increased slightly from 1.1 % to 1.3%.

RELATED STORY | President Joe Biden tests positive for COVID-19, cancels speaking appearance

The CDC is also monitoring COVID-19 viral levels in wastewater, as the information collected can be used as a warning of an increase or a decrease in infection. The latest findings show viral levels from wastewater collected in Florida and Oregon more than tripled the national trend, while levels in Nevada more than doubled. Overall, 26 states reported very high or high levels of viral activity in wastewater, while 10 states showed moderate levels.

Dr. Rosha McCoy, the senior director of the American Association of Medical Colleges, said an increase in positive COVID cases during summer and fall months has become a trend. She strongly advises people to not let their guard down and to continue to take precautions to protect themselves from the infection.

I think we should all be concerned, McCoy said.

KP.2 and KP.3 are the predominant variants circulating in the U.S. and account for an estimated 60% of infections, according to CDC data.

RELATED STORY | Nearly 1 in 10 people who get COVID-19 while pregnant will develop long COVID, new study finds

Most of the hospitalizations were seeing are from people over the age of 65, people who have immunocompromised conditions, McCoy said.

The most common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever or chills, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell, body aches and diarrhea.

If youre sick you need not to be around others, and should definitely consider masking so that you dont pass this on to other people, McCoy said.

McCoy strongly advises staying up to date with vaccines for protection against new COVID-19 variants. She predicts the FDA and the CDC will announce a new vaccine to protect against COVID-19 sometime in late August or September.

Treatment is available for COVID-19, and McCoy strongly advises people who are immunocompromised to talk to their doctor about booster shots.

President Biden tested positive for COVID-19 following an event in Las Vegas, according to the White House. President Biden's physician, Dr. Kevin OConnor, said the president was experiencing mild symptoms.

President Biden is now en route to Delaware to self-isolate, and has been prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid.

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President Biden's COVID-19 comes amid an increase in viral activity in wastewater - Scripps News

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Biden Tests Positive for the Coronavirus, and Senators Berate Secret Service Chief - The New York Times

LONDON -- The U.K. government was ill-prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic and serious errors in planning failed its citizens, an inquiry found Thursday.

Retired judge Heather Hallett, who is leading the ongoing inquiry, said the government wrongly believed in 2019 that it was one of the best-prepared countries in the world for an outbreak and it anticipated the wrong pandemic influenza.

This belief was dangerously mistaken," Hallett said in releasing her first report. In reality, the U.K. was ill-prepared for dealing with the whole-system civil emergency of a pandemic, let alone the coronavirus pandemic that actually struck.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been blamed for more than 235,000 deaths in the U.K. through the end of 2023 one of the highest death tolls in the world.

Todays report confirms what many have always believed that the U.K. was under-prepared for COVID-19, and that process, planning and policy across all four nations failed U.K. citizens," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, referring to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The safety and security of the country should always be the first priority, and this government is committed to learning the lessons from the inquiry and putting better measures in place to protect and prepare us from the impact of any future pandemic," he said.

The first report from the inquiry, based on hearings that began in June 2023, was focused only on pandemic preparedness and didn't place blame on any individual.

A second phase looking at the governments response, including the partygate scandal in which then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff broke their own rules by hosting work parties, is due later. A third phase will look into what lessons can be learned from how the nation handled the crisis. The inquiry is due to hold hearings until 2026.

Hallett found that an outdated 2011 pandemic strategy for flu wasn't flexible enough to adapt to a crisis nearly a decade later and was abandoned almost immediately.

There were fatal strategic flaws underpinning the assessment of the risks faced by the U.K., how those risks and their consequences could be managed and prevented from worsening and how the state should respond, Hallett said.

There also was a lack of focus on what was needed to deal with a rapidly transmissible disease, and not enough done to build up a system to test, trace and isolate infected patients.

Hallett said in her 217-page report that the U.K. needs to be better prepared for the next pandemic one that could be even deadlier.

The U.K. will again face a pandemic that, unless we are better prepared, will bring with it immense suffering and huge financial cost and the most vulnerable in society will suffer the most, she said.

Hallett recommended that a new pandemic strategy be developed and tested every three years, and that government and political leaders should be accountable for having preparedness and resilience systems in place. She also said that outside experts should be used to prevent the known problem of groupthink."

Unless the lessons are learned, and fundamental change is implemented, that effort and cost will have been in vain when it comes to the next pandemic," Hallett said. "Never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering.

Elkan Abrahamson, who represents the nearly 7,000 members of the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, applauded Hallett for adopting most of its recommendations to prevent a repeat disaster.

However, it is extremely disappointing that the vulnerable were ignored in the recommendations and there were no proposals for dealing with racial inequality, health inequalities or the effects of austerity, Abrahamson said.

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Inquiry finds Britain was ill-prepared for COVID-19 pandemic and failed its citizens - ABC News

Told we had one of the best plans... but for the wrong pandemicpublished at 14:38 18 July 14:38 18 July

Nick Triggle Health correspondent

The report is careful not to point the finger of blame at any particular individuals.

That will disappoint some, but its because what Covid Inquiry chair Baroness Hallett sets out is a detailed and damning account of systematic failure.

A complex, labyrinthine structure of committees and advisory groups had developed over the years.

Devolution, which led to health being devolved, was a factor in this.

The scientists often so lauded during the pandemic were guilty of groupthink.

And ministers didnt do enough to challenge that.

But some of the problems were political too. Politicians may not be experts, but they set priorities. The pandemic plan dated back to 2011 and opportunities to update particularly after a training exercise in 2016 were missed. Why? One factor was the amount of planning going into a no-deal Brexit.

Austerity had also left public services over-stretched and lacking resilience to cope with an emergency.

A sense of exceptionalism played a role too. Told we had one of the best plans, we believed it. Except we had planned for the wrong pandemic. Lulled into a false sense of security by Swine Flu in 2009, we assumed the next pandemic would be mild and we could let it spread.

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Government failed its citizens on Covid due to flawed pandemic planning, damning report finds - BBC.com

A summer wave of COVID-19 is rising.

Theres clearly a bump, says William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. The medical center has seen a steady increase of hospital admissions for COVID-19 over the past three weeks, Schaffner says. That was entirely expected, Im afraid.

Each year, peaks of COVID-19 appear in the summer and again in the winter. Unlike influenza, which nearly disappears in the summer, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, hasnt settled into a seasonal pattern (SN: 1/29/24). It spreads whenever and wherever people gather indoors.

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This is an endemic virus that really cant be avoided if youre going to be interacting with humans, says Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

COVID-19 has gotten less severe thanks to immunity from vaccines and prior infections and to treatments for the virus, Adalja says. Unlike previous summer waves, this one isnt overwhelming hospitals.

Wastewater surveillance data one of the only ways to gauge spread of the virus indicate that viral variants are surging across the United States, especially in western states and in places that had mild winter seasons. And the variants circulating now are incredibly infectious, Schaffner says.

High or very high levels of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have been found in wastewater in about half of U.S. states, especially in western states.

Levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater as of July 11, 2024, by state

One variant on the rise is a great-great-great-grandchild of omicron called KP.3.1.1. Like other omicron offspring, it has multiple mutations in the spike protein, including one that helps it evade antibodies produced after an infection with recent variants or immunization with one of last falls version of the vaccines, researchers report July 17 in a preprint posted to bioRxiv.org.

The rising tide of infections is likely to last into August, Schaffner says, but there are things people can do to avoid getting sick.

Tend to your immunity by getting vaccinated against the coronavirus, Schaffner advises. Thats especially important for older people and people with medical conditions such as diabetes that put them at higher risk for severe disease. An estimated 6.6 percent of adults in the United States are immunocompromised, researchers reported in JAMA in February. Those people are especially vulnerable, Schaffner says.

Immunity from last years vaccination has probably waned. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that high-risk people, especially people 65 and older, should consider getting vaccinated now and then get updated vaccines in the fall. Vaccines are good for preventing severe disease and hospitalization, but the current ones arent effective for blocking infection, Adalja says. Vaccination also can help prevent long COVID (SN: 7/17/24).

You can also wear an N-95 or KN-95 mask. And you have to put them on correctly, Schaffner says. Wearing them below the nose or on your forehead doesnt help at all.

People in high-risk groups, such as those who are immunocompromised, can get a monoclonal antibody called Pemgarda to help protect against infection, Adalja says.

If youre sick now, take a test to see if its COVID-19, but dont be too quick to dismiss the possibility if the result is negative. A negative test could mean the immune system is keeping the coronavirus in check or that youve come down with a different illness, Adalja says. A second at-home test or a PCR test at a doctors office may give a clearer answer.

Isolate yourself until youre feeling better and dont have a fever for at least 24 hours, the CDC advised in updated guidelines released in March. That goes for any respiratory illness. Some people with COVID-19 never develop fevers so they need to use good judgment to decide when they can go out safely, Schaffner says. The CDC advises exercising caution for at least five days after symptoms improve and wearing a mask when interacting with others.

Good judgment also helps here, Schaffner says. Think about who youll see and how long youll be in an enclosed space with them. Maybe postpone the visit to grandma in the nursing home and the hours-long poker game and take a walk outside instead, he says.

People in high-risk groups might benefit from taking antiviral drugs such as Paxlovid or molnupiravir. Paxlovid shaves only one day off the duration of illness for vaccinated people, a result that isnt statistically meaningful, researchers reported April 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Some studies suggest Paxlovid may help prevent long COVID, but others have found that it doesnt help (SN: 3/31/23).

COVID-19 is not going away, Adalja says. There will always be new variants causing fresh rounds of infection, but medicine and science have given us tremendous amounts of tools to deal with this virus, more than for any other respiratory virus.

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How to stay healthy during the COVID-19 summertime surge - Science News Magazine

Its July and as if the excessive heat isnt enough, there is also coronavirus out there.

The surveillance is less widespread, or even timely, these days. But more people who bother to test are positive for COVID-19, and some are being hospitalized, and more virus is being found in wastewater samples. Many of us know of someone at home sick, including President Joe Biden.

What we see in the local numbers, maybe there is a hint of something happening; I wouldnt necessarily think its anything major yet, said Andrew Pekosz, a COVID researcher and professor of immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In the Southwest of the U.S., there are some crazy increases going on, he said. But reporting is slow. People know people who are sick, and its not reflected in the data we are seeing from public health sites and hospitals. So well see if the current upward trend continues in Maryland.

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Pekosz said COVID has surged in late fall-winter each year for the past three years, but cases have gone up in summer, too, despite viruses not liking the extreme temperatures. He said COVID seems to be taking advantage of people escaping the heat together indoors. And unlike the flu, there always seems to be enough cases of COVID out there from which a wave can build.

The Maryland Department of Health is still collecting data from laboratories and health care providers that test people for COVID, and officials report the case rate was 4.08 per 100,000 people in Maryland as of July 15, up from 2.77 per 100,000 the week before.

Hospitals, which dont routinely test every patient anymore, also show a relatively small uptick in cases. There were 119 patients diagnosed with COVID in Maryland hospitals as of July 15, more than double the number from mid-May, but nowhere near the pandemic peaks when cases numbered in the thousands.

At the University of Maryland Medical System, with a dozen hospitals, theres been a minimal increase among inpatients, said Dr. Gregory Schrank, an infectious disease physician at the University of Maryland Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine at the universitys School of Medicine. There could be a rise in COVID activity in July and August, Schrank said, as theres been in prior years.

Hospitals have come to expect more cases when families vacation in summer, travel for holidays and go back to school, said Sharon Boston, spokeswoman for LifeBridge Health, which includes Sinai Hospital in North Baltimore.

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LifeBridge Health has seen a slight uptick in patients admitted to our hospitals for COVID, and we are seeing a definite increase in our communities, generally related to people traveling on airplanes and cruises.

Other sources back this up to a degree, including the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions National Wastewater Surveillance System. But that data is also incomplete. The system only has COVID testing data for four counties: Anne Arundel, Washington, Garrett and St. Marys.

While Anne Arundel data does show a large increase in COVID over the last 45 days, the oldest data is from February, making it impossible to compare current levels to previous spikes.

The system does show half of the states are listed as having high or very high levels of COVID.

By now, most people have had COVID or been vaccinated so their bodies have developed protections against severe disease, Pekosz said. The exception are people who have not been infected or vaccinated in a while. He said getting boosted is important for them, as well as those who are very young or old or have underlying health conditions.

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Unvaccinated people also are more likely to develop long COVID, where symptoms persist or worsen over time. Sick people can infect the most vulnerable people if they do not isolate or take precautions.

The CDC now advises people can return to daily activities once symptoms improve and fever has been gone for 24 hours, though officials say taking precautions such as masking or keeping a distance for longer can prevent spread. Its the same advice for other infections, such as the flu or RSV.

Pekosz said using rapid COVID tests until you are negative is the best way to protect others.

The CDC recommends anyone 6 months and older get the next COVID shot when it becomes available later this year. Vaccines are expected from Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer to match circulating strains.

A study recently published by Johns Hopkins researchers shows more regular boosters, every three to six months, help people who are immunocompromised fight COVID.

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The Baltimore City Health Department has launched new ads specifically calling on older adults to stay up to date on boosters. The department continues to partner with schools, churches and community centers to offer vaccines.

Officials note that most insurers cover the shots, and Walgreens and CVS offer them for free for the uninsured. Appointments generally can be found at vaccines.gov

The virus has evolved since the height of the pandemic, said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Ihuoma Emenuga in a statement. And just as flu shots are recommended each season, the CDC recommends the updated COVID-19 shots to protect yourself, your loved one and your community against serious illness from COVID-19.

Baltimore Banner Data Editor Ryan Little contributed to this article.

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Is COVID rising in Maryland? Heres what we know - The Baltimore Banner

President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of a planned campaign appearance atthe UnidosUS conference in Las Vegas.

"He is vaccinated and boosted and he is experiencing mild symptoms," White House press secretaryKarine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. "He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time."

According to Biden's physician,Dr. Kevin OConnor, Biden "presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms," including a runny nose, "non-productive cough" and "general malaise."

"He felt okay for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus,"Dr. OConnor continued, adding that Biden's temperature is a normal 97.8 degrees and his blood oxygen level was 97%. He was given his first dose of Paxlovid, Pfizer's antiviral COVID-19 treatment, on Wednesday.

"I feel good," Biden said as he boarded Air Force One to depart Nevada and travel to Delaware.

Biden's planned address at the UnidosUS gathering was part of an effort to counterprogram the Republican National Convention, which is taking place in Milwaukee, and working to shore up support among Hispanic voters in a battleground state that helped deliver him the White House in 2020.

UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murgua broke the news to the crowd ahead of the White House's confirmation.

"I was just on the phone with President Biden, and he shared his deep disappointment at not being able to join us this afternoon," she said. "The president has been at many events as we all know and he just tested positive for COVID."

Earlier Wednesday, Biden visited Linda Michoacan Mexican Restaurant in Las Vegas, where he mingled with patrons and sat for an interview withUnivisions Luis Sandoval.

Biden first tested positive for COVID-19 in 2022. Days later, he experienced a rebound case of the coronavirus.

Continue reading here:

Biden tests positive for COVID-19 ahead of Nevada event - Spectrum News NY1

The timing of the illness is difficult politically as Biden is weathering growing calls to withdraw from the race over concerns about his stamina and fitness.

The virus is known to strike particularly hard at those over age 60, but Biden, 81, has been vaccinated and is current on his recommended annual booster dose. The vaccines have proven highly effective at limiting serious illness and death in people of all ages.

Dr. Kevin OConnor, the presidents physician, said Wednesday that Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Biden last tested positive for COVID-19 twice in the summer of 2022, when he had a primary case and a rebound case of the virus.

Many current COVID sufferers can commiserate with the President. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports as of July 09, 2024, COVID-19 infections are growing or likely growing in 45 states and territories, including Georgia and Washington D.C.

I mean, Ive had it, a bunch of people have had it, said Dr. Carlos del Rio, distinguished professor of medicine in infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine. He believes he got infected on a plane returning from a meeting abroad in early June. He went from testing negative one night to a bright strong positive test the next morning, to recovery and testing negative by the end of the week.

It was really quick, del Rio said. This new variant, I get the impression that if youre vaccinated and boosted, you are likely ... going to feel sick for a day or two, but its going to be a mild illness with very little significance.

Given President Bidens age, which makes him more vulnerable, del Rio said he agreed he would have given Biden Paxlovid, which is meant to be given before severe symptoms start to prevent them, not as a treatment after they arise.

A summertime COVID outbreak has become the norm since the pandemic began, tied to people gathering indoors where its cooler and enjoying holiday travel. Health experts and doctors have said they expect this summers illnesses to be milder than some past versions of the virus, but the latest iterations of the ever-evolving coronavirus seem to be more contagious.

For many people who have already had COVID, a reinfection is often milder than an earlier case. But those 65 and older, pregnant or immunocompromised remain at higher risk of serious complications from COVID.

Now that COVID is a regular seasonal occurrence, its important to treat it that way, said Cherie Drenzek, the Georgias state epidemiologist and chief science officer. People can get the seasonal vaccine boosters and talk to a doctor just as we do annually with flu, Drenzek said. A new booster should be available in August, she said.

While few masks are visible these days, wearing one and taking a COVID test is still important if people get exposed to COVID and then are going to be around vulnerable people.

Drenzek said cases are definitely rising in Georgia, which usually happens at the end of each summer. However, she said, this increase in hospitalizations is not nearly as big or as dangerous as previous ones have been.

Even though were seeing increases in COVID activity, the severe outcomes remain low, Drenzek said. For example, here in Georgia, the number of deaths due to COVID that weve been documenting over the last several months have been on average 10 or less a week. Now this is a record low compared to other variants, other waves, other times during the pandemic.

Deaths tend to lag behind hospitalizations by a couple weeks, but Drenzek said she was still not expecting a huge spike.

President Bidens age alone puts him at a higher risk of severe illness or death from COVID.

Age remains the strongest risk factor for severe COVID illness, with the risk of severe outcomes increasing markedly with increasing age, according to CDC researchers.

Based on data from deaths in the U.S. from 2020 to 2022, and including both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, compared to adults between 18 and 29, the risk of death from COVID is 25 times higher in those ages 50 to 64 years; 60 times higher in those ages 65 to 74 years; 140 times higher in those 75 to 84; and 340 times higher in those ages 85 and older.

The virus has killed 1.19 million people in the U.S. since the pandemic began in 2020, according to the CDC.

The CDC no longer tracks COVID numbers but estimates the trend of the virus spread based on emergency room visits. According to the CDC, for the week that ended July 6, Georgia reported fewer than 1% of emergency room visits are due to COVID. Nationally 1.3% of emergency visits were diagnosed as COVID, an increase of 23% in week that ended July 6.

In June, the CDC recommended everyone 6 months and older get one of the new COVID vaccines when they become available this fall.

The Food and Drug Administration recently asked drug makers to update the COVID vaccines to target the most recent strain circulating widely in the U.S. over the winter months.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story has been updated to include comments from Dr. Carlos del Rio and Cherie Drenzek.

So youve got COVID and arent sure whether to stay home? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March updated its guidelines on when people can return to their normal activities after any viral illness such as the flu or COVID.

You can go back to your normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, both are true:

o Your symptoms are getting better overall, and

o You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication).

When you go back to your normal activities, take added precautions over the next 5 days, such as taking additional steps for cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and testing yourself when you will be around other people indoors.

o Keep in mind that you may still be able to spread the virus that made you sick, even if you are feeling better. You are likely to be less contagious at this time, depending on factors like how long you were sick or how sick you were.

o If you develop a fever or you start to feel worse after you have gone back to normal activities, stay home and away from others again until, for at least 24 hours your symptoms are improving overall, and you have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication). Then take added precautions for the next 5 days.

Credit: Ronda Churchill/AP

Credit: Ronda Churchill/AP

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Biden tests positive for COVID-19 as summer infections spike - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

COVID cases are on the rise once again, with President Joe Biden among those recently testing positive for the virus, but what symptoms are associated with the newest variants and what should you do if you test positive?

Health officials have reported recent upticks in emergency room visits and hospitalizations from COVID-19. There has also been a pronounced increase in positive test results in much of the country, including Illinois. Still, health experts say the numbers aren't as high as recent surges.

"The number of cases remains lower than the number counted during the most recent fall peak or during the small peak we saw last summer in Chicago," Dr. Mary Hayden, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Rush University System for Health, told NBC Chicago.

The White House announced that President Joe Biden began experiencing mild symptoms on Wednesday after testing positive for the coronavirus.

A new series of COVID variants, nicknamed the "FLiRT" variants, are dominating across the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The variants, identified as KP.1.1, KP.3 and KP.2, collectively make up more than 55% of COVID cases in the U.S., per the CDC's most recent variant tracking data. KP.3, in particular, made up the most cases of any variant at 24.5% of cases, according to the latest forecasting data.

Similarly, emergency room visits measured through June 29 showed COVID-related visits were up 18% from the previous week. Illinois was among states seeing a "substantial change" in metrics week-over-week, the data showed. The state's COVID-related emergency room visits were up 29.7% from the previous week, though the total percent of emergency room visits deemed to be COVID visits still remained "minimal," at 0.8%.

So what can you expect with the latest strains?

The variants are subvariants of JN.1, which rose to dominance in December 2023 and was labeled a "variant of concern," though the "FLiRT" variants have two changes in the spike protein compared to JN.1.

"The two changes in spike have been observed in earlier lineages, including XBB.1.5 lineages, which were dominant throughout 2023 and the basis for the 20232024 vaccine formulation," the CDC reported.

Health officials said that while there are no indicators the new strains cause more severe illness than other strains, the "CDC will continue to monitor community transmission of the virus and how vaccines perform against this strain."

Megan L. Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health, told WebMD the spike protein changes are concerning.

The KP.3 variant quickly rose to dominance, overtaking KP.2 as the most prevalent strain in the U.S. in a matter of weeks, the CDC reported.

Its still early days, but the initial impression is that this variant is rather transmissible, Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told TODAY.com.

Some lab studies suggest the FLiRT variants may be mutated enough that previous vaccination or immunity from prior infection likely won't provide total protection, Schaffner said.

"We'll have to see how true that is, but it appears, over time to be becoming a more prominent variant," he told TODAY.

According to Hayden, common symptoms continue to be similar to those associated with a number of viral respiratory infections.

"Common symptoms continue to be fever, sore throat, runny nose, cough, headache, muscle aches, fatigue, loss of the sense of smell, nausea, diarrhea and bloating," she said. "These symptoms can also occur with other viral respiratory infections such as the common cold. Severe symptoms that warrant medical attention include shortness of breath, but these symptoms are uncommon."

Dr. Lakshmi Halasyamani, the Chief Clinical Officer at Endeavor Health, said despite the spread of the newest variant, the main symptoms associated with COVID remain unchanged

The most common symptoms Halasyamani reported seeing are largely respiratory-related.

If you do suspect you've contracted COVID, here are some symptoms you might experience, according to the CDC:

Last year, a Chicago-area doctorsaid she's noticed shifts in the most common symptomsher patients reported as the JN.1 variant rose to dominance.

Dr. Chantel Tinfang, a family medicine physician with Sengstacke Health Center at Provident Hospital of Cook County,noted at the time that many of the cases she saw reported less of the fever, body aches and chills, and presented more with sore throat, fatigue and coughing.

"We still see some patients experiencing decreased appetite, a loss of taste or smell. So it kind of depends," she said. "One patient was just very, very tired. Like she couldn't really do much. And that's when you know ... it's different. It's not just coughing and shortness of breath. We still see that though."

She suggested consulting with your doctor if your symptoms don't begin to improve outside of the recommended isolation period.

As for timing, symptoms can last for several days, but in some cases, even longer.

"Some people who have been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 can experience long-term effects from their infection, known as Long COVID or Post-COVID Conditions (PCC)," according to the CDC.

Such symptoms can last for weeks and possibly even years.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the federal ICATT program offers no-cost COVID-19 testing for uninsured people: here is a locator that folks can use to find places near them.

Dr. Mary Hayden, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Rush University System for Health, also noted that free options remain available for those who are uninsured through local health departments and community health clinics.

In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its COVID guidelines to mirror guidance for other respiratory infections. Those who contracted COVID-19 no longer need to stay away from others for five days, the CDC said, effectively nixing the five-day isolation recommendation.

People can return to work or regular activities if their symptoms are mild and improving and it's been a day since they've had a fever, but the CDC still recommends those with symptoms stay home.

"The recommendations suggest returning to normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, symptoms are improving overall, and if a fever was present, it has been gone without use of a fever-reducing medication," the guidance states.

Once activities are resumed, the CDC still recommends "additional prevention strategies" for an additional five days, including wearing a mask and keeping distance from others.

The agency is emphasizing that people should still try to prevent infections in the first place, by getting vaccinated, washing their hands, and taking steps to bring in more outdoor fresh air.

As part of the guidance, the CDC suggests:

Original post:

Is COVID surging again? What to know about symptoms, tests - NBC Chicago

LAS VEGAS President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing mild symptoms including general malaise from the infection, the White House said.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden will fly to his home in Delaware, where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time. The news had first been shared by UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murgua, who told guests at the groups convention in Las Vegas that president had sent his regrets and could not appear because he tested positive for the virus.

Dr. Kevin OConnor, the presidents physician, said in a note that Biden, 81, presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorhea (runny nose) and non-productive cough, with general malaise. After the positive COVID-19 test, Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and has taken his first dose, OConnor said.

Biden was slated to speak at the UnidosUS event in Las Vegas Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to rally Hispanic voters ahead of the November election. Instead, he departed for the airport to fly to Delaware, where he had already been planning to spend a long weekend at his home in Rehoboth Beach.

The presidents diagnosis comes amid intense scrutiny of his health and stamina after a disastrous debate with former President Donald Trump that sparked aflurry of concernamong Democrats that Biden is not up to the rigors of winning another presidential term.

Biden gingerly boarded Air Force One and told reporters traveling with him, I feel good. The president was not wearing a mask as he walked onto Air Force One.

The president had previously been at the Original Lindo Michoacan restaurant in Las Vegas, where he was greeting diners and sat for an interview with Univision.

Biden has been vaccinated and is current on his recommended annual booster dose for COVID-19. The vaccines have proven highly effective at limiting serious illness and death from the virus, which killed more than 1 million people in the U.S. since the pandemic began in 2020. Paxlovid has been proven to curtail the chances of serious illness and death from COVID-19 when prescribed in the early days of an infection, but has also been associated with rebound infections, where the virus comes back a few days after clearing up.

Biden last tested positive for COVID-19 twice in the summer of 2022, when he had a primary case and a rebound case of the virus.

Health officials have reported recent upticks in emergency room visits and hospitalizations from COVID-19. There has also been a pronounced increase in positive test results in much of the country particularly the southwestern U.S.

Originally Published: July 17, 2024 at 5:43 p.m.

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President Joe Biden tests positive for COVID-19 while campaigning in Las Vegas, has mild symptoms - Chicago Tribune